Outtakes
by Oreochema
Summary: The force of Danny's initial impact cracked the super-reinforced glass, but then Mike's secondary plasma blast struck him in the chest, adding momentum to his body and forcing him back even further. A retake on the episode "Kindred Spirits"
1. Chapter 1

**AH, YES. DISCLAIMERS. I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM, THE CHARACTERS THEREIN, OR THE EPISODE I REFERENCED FOR THIS ENTIRE PIECE. HOWEVER, I DO OWN THE IDEAS BEHIND THIS VERSION OF SAID EPISODE.**

Outtakes

You've just got to love the cartoon companies, right? They entertain the kids with fun stories about animated characters whose comic troubles never seem to end; they generate laughter with all sorts of ridiculous situations and inspire smiles with every kind of hilarity they can think up. But not all of those stories are made-up fantasies. Take my story for example: Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon made me out to be some amazing hero, a half-boy, half-ghost hybrid, and I was really popular for a while. To a degree, I still am.

But not everything is the way the animators made it out to be. None of it was as simple as they made it seem. They took out a lot of the more gruesome details. You know, for the kids' sake. They made money off of my story, and they didn't even tell the whole thing.

Of course, I'm not sure _anyone_ wants to know _all _of the details.

But there is at least _one_ part of my tale that I have to correct. Do you remember the "episode" _Kindred Spirits_? The one in which Vlad captured me and took me to his mansion in Wisconsin just so he could force me to transform and take my DNA for a half-baked copy? Oh, yes. That was far from accurate. Vlad almost won, and he came much, much closer than Nickelodeon told you he did. As a matter of fact, I had to lie to my parents by telling them I was mugged on the way home from school. It was pretty hard to get them to believe that anyone from Amity Park was so desperate as to carry cattle prods and brass knuckles.

And Vlad did more than just try for my DNA. He actually got it at one point. I had to fight my clone. Then Danni. Then Vlad. And Vlad was pretty upset with me for destroying that clone. I wasn't going to win. But at least Nickelodeon got one part right. I wasn't going to leave that place breathing, but Sam and Tucker saved my life.

You see, Vlad's containment device was much stronger than it appeared on the show. I resisted, but it wasn't easy, and eventually, I had to shift over to my ghost half and give Plasmius a DNA sample. Not to mention that it was much harder than it looked to make Danni believe that Vlad was a liar. But explaining it all like this won't even begin to scratch the surface of what happened to me that day. I'll just let you watch the holographic security videos that Tucker stole as proof.


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: I USED THE FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW IN CHAPTER ONE TO HELP WITH DANNY'S PERSPECTIVE IN THIS STORY, BUT I USED THE REFERENCE TO 'HOLOGRAPHIC SECURITY FOOTAGE' TO ALLOW ME TO SWITCH TO THE THIRD PERSON. I FIND FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW TO BE LIMITED AND TRY TO AVOID IT IF I CAN. THE REST OF THIS STORY WILL BE IN THE THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW. PLEASE ENJOY. ALSO, DANNY PHANTOM DOES NOT BELONG TO ME, BUT TO BUTCH HARTMAN.  
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**CHAPTER 2**

Wakefulness returned slowly at first, but as soon as Danny's eyes opened and he saw Vlad Plasmius standing (or floating, rather) in front of him, he was wide awake. A familiar sound caught his attention, and he looked to Vlad's right, his own left, and saw a computer monitor.

There he saw himself, shifting from his human to his ghost form, and with that transformation came the sound of his change, a ring of light snapping into existence around his waist and trailing over his body. Not just once, but perhaps half a dozen times or more, he watched himself undergo the metamorphosis which gave him his power. But more than surprise at the fact that Vlad had been watching and recording him to retrieve these videos, was a sense of anger.

"You've been spying on me? Okay, I've said it before and I'll say it again: You really are one seriously crazed up fruit loop!"

Vlad moved toward another monitor, this one larger. "A fruit loop would not have been able to make his first million with a series of invisible burglaries. A fruit loop would never have thought to overshadow enough millionaires to become one of the richest men on the planet! I. Am. Not. A. Fruit. Loop!" Vlad paused. "And I am not a villain. All I wanted was love."

Vlad lifted his right arm and pressed a button on the wall. A hissing noise signaled the opening of a large metal container to Danny's right. He turned his head to see what his arch foe was referring to, and gasped. Inside the device was an exact duplicate of himself.

"It's taken months," Vlad continued, "And the good clone still needs a little more time before he can accept your DNA."

Danny thought back to his opponents over the last few days. It all made sense. Even his alleged 'cousin' was one of Vlad's failed attempts at copying him. "So those ghosts. . . ?"

"Bad clones, mistakes." Vlad confirmed, as a tiny, ectoplasmic particle flew past Danny's face and took its place next to Vlad. It expanded into an inconstant, wavering version of Danny and screamed it him, its left eye falling out in the process. The organ landed on the floor and melted into ectoplasm, leaving behind a small splotch of the green ooze. Vlad continued, "And I would watch a hundred more failures devolve into ectoplasm, to get the perfect, half-ghost son."

"Oh, yeah." Danny remarked with a chuckle. "Nothing loopy about that."

Vlad raised an eyebrow in an expression of amusement. "Are you under the impression you're getting out of this?" He brought a hand to his chin in contemplation, then bent over so that he was face-to-face with Danny. "I believe you are quite mistaken, Daniel. No one knows you're here, and no one is coming for you. You see, I need a DNA sample of you mid-morph, to complete my work. And in just a few more hours, with your DNA to stabilize his form and his powers, your clone will be perfect."

Vlad snapped his fingers, and the unstable clone next to him returned to its miniscule dot-like form and phased into Danny's forehead. Danny felt an odd, strangely cold sensation somewhere inside his skull. It quickly engulfed the entirety of the inside of his cranium. "Get out of me!" He yelled, but it wouldn't stop; he squeezed his eyes shut as the sensation took over, then opened them to glare defiantly at his nemesis. The last thing he remembered was looking at Vlad through a haze of green as the man smiled at him.

"And then you," he said, "will be obsolete."

'_Where am I?' _Danny stood alone in the dark, unable to see his surroundings. Everything was fuzzy, unclear, hazy. Then he thought: _'What is this stuff?'_ and suddenly he was treading water.

No. Not water. Something black and murky. Something opaque and mysterious.

The first tendrils of fear began to wrap themselves around Danny's heart as he realized that he was completely exposed; whatever wanted to attack him here could do so freely. He instinctively reached for the ghost power deep inside his body, but couldn't find it. The fear began to grow into panic. What was going on here?

There was no time to find out. The black liquid began to flow away, at first taking him with it, but then leaving him standing on solid ground once again. Voices began to echo across whatever expanse surrounded him. And suddenly, one of them was right in his ear.

"Subject secure, Dearest!" His mom's voice.

Danny snapped awake with such violence that every muscle in his body spasmed, leaving his chest, arms and legs with a strange thrumming sensation. His vision was back to normal, but his breathing was heavy, and sweat was creeping down his temples and neck. He lifted a hand to wipe the liquid from his skin, but his arm stopped several inches from his face, stopped by some sort of barrier. Danny looked down to find that he was standing in a sort of pod-like device, his hands restrained by cuffs of some sort.

For a moment, all Danny could think about was the tickle of the sweat making its way down the sensitive spot on his neck, but the notion was forgotten as he examined his surroundings. The 'floor' of the containment pod was elevated and stood about two feet above the floor of the room it was in. Danny could also see banks of computer equipment lining the walls and several other cloning devices in another corner of the room. One of them held the duplicate earlier indicated by Vlad.

It occurred to the fourteen-year-old that Vlad Plasmius was standing in front of him. Danny could feel his eyes harden as his facial expression transformed into one of rage.

Vlad simply grinned that sly, fanged grin that he always wore when he thought he was winning. "Glare at me all you like, boy. But it won't break that containment unit open, and it won't do me any harm. Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll morph _now_ so that I won't have to force you to."

"No good, Fruit Loop. You didn't say please."

Vlad's smug grin turned into a frown of irritation. "Really, Daniel, you haven't been very polite to me. I am your host, after all, and you are staying in my house."

Danny simply continued to glare at the man before him. "You kidnapped me! I don't think a welcoming host would do something like that."

"No? Well, it's no matter to me. All I need is a sample of your genetic code, and if you won't give it to me of your own volition, I'll have to take it from you."

"Go ahead and try, Vlad. Even if you _can_ get a DNA sample, I've spent months learning what little I know about my powers. This clone won't know anything!"

Vlad folded his arms. "Whether he knows is irrelevant, boy. You will be either dead or completely human when I'm finished with you, and you won't have the means to stop him. Besides, I'll be teaching him everything I've learned in the _years_ that I've had these abilities. Your pathetic collection of knowledge about what you are amounts to little more than a fragment of what there is to learn."

Without another word, Vlad nodded to an unseen figure to Danny's left. A holographic figure, obviously designed to look like his mom, reached up and turned a dial on the container in which the teen was standing.

There was a tell-tale 'power-up' sound, quickly followed by a tingling sensation in Danny's wrists. He was just beginning to realize what that meant when the sensation started to intensify into discomfort, stimulating his muscles and causing them to tense; his hands fisted as the power flowing through his body increased. But the fact that he was practically being electrocuted wasn't what was bothering him; he knew that electricity wasn't the only component involved in whatever Vlad was doing, because the pins-and-needles sensation wasn't just affecting his muscles. It was crawling through his organs and surrounding the core of ghostly power sheltered within his body.

Danny could feel the foreign energy in his body toying with his ghost power, and closed his eyes as he focused on shielding his currently contained ghost half from the probing fingers of Vlad's energy. As the tendrils of power began to retreat from Danny's body, he could feel a decrease in the pins-and-needles sensation and the pain that had begun to invade only moments before. He opened his eyes and grinned at Vlad.

'_Is this all you can do?' _he thought. _'You'd be better off-'_

The thought was cut short when Vlad snarled and turned to 'Maddie.' He unfolded his arms, his right dropping to his side and the other gesturing toward the containment unit. "What is the current power level?"

"Currently running at level two, darling!"

"Turn it up to level four."

"Acknowledged, Dear-heart!" The false Maddie replied as she reached for the machine's dial once again.

Vlad's snarl became a smirk as he refocused on the boy in front of him. _'He thinks he can fight? Well, that should become evident enough in the next few minutes.' _Vlad thought as he reviewed what he knew about the biology of the bodies that he and the boy possessed. Both he and Daniel contained within themselves a human form and a ghost form. Whichever form was not being manifested was contained within the body and protected by a core of energy located somewhere behind the intestines and in front of the spinal column. When he or Daniel wanted to transform and take on their alternative body, all they had to do was focus in the core and 'break' it; this would allow them to direct the contained energy over their bodies, causing them to change into whichever form was contained within. The release of energy was what caused the halo of light around Daniel's waist and the ring of shadow around his own.

It was this knowledge that had revealed to Vlad how to force Danny to transform. He had designed the machine himself to probe into the sphere of energy located within the boy's body. He knew that both electricity and ectoplasmic energy were able to be manipulated, and that he intended to use both when creating his machine, but since electricity was more predictable in nature, Vlad had decided to use it as his primary tool rather than try to invent a device that could conduct ectoplasmic energy in the same way. And since electricity was also a 'lazy' energy, it tended to seek out other sources of power so that its own journey through space and matter would be easier. For that reason, it would latch on to the ghost power within Daniel's body. As for the use of _ectoplasmic_ energy, Vlad had learned that it was attracted to itself, so he had supplied some of his own power, lacing the electricity flowing through the containment unit, and through Danny's body, with some of his own ghost power. Not only would Vlad's spectral energy seek out and attempt to break Daniel's core, the additional, _natural _voltage would saturate it and weaken it.

All of this had gone through Vlad's mind in the second and a half it had taken 'Maddie' to turn up the dial.

Danny felt his resolve challenged as the machine began to work harder, forcing more of the foreign power into his body. Clenching his fists even tighter, he willed himself to keep fighting and once again pushed the unwelcome energy away from his ghostly core, but even as he resisted, he could feel himself weakening.

The humming sound within the machine grew louder as it funneled more energy into Danny's body, and still the boy rebelled. Although Plasmius admired the boy's fortitude, he had to admit that it was also counterproductive. He would have to fix that, and quickly, before the child's resolve could grow.

No sooner did the thought cross his mind than Danny locked eyes with him and bared his teeth in a grim, determined smile. And while the demonstration displeased Vlad, it heartened him as well, for he could see pain in those eyes, and pain was an enemy to the survival instinct.

However, instead of ordering the hologram of his beloved to increase the voltage, as the boy surely expected, Vlad waited. He wanted to see just how long Daniel thought he could hold out, and just how strong the child thought he was.

Danny was holding back Vlad's mysterious energy, albeit with great difficulty. However, he wanted the man to know he wasn't afraid, so he clenched his jaws shut and forced himself to smile. Then, for good measure, he stared straight into the man's eyes. He was somewhat disheartened when Vlad's grin only briefly faltered, then returned with more enthusiasm. Danny saw the other half-ghost glance at the Maddie program, and thought he would tell her to increase the power again, but Vlad did not. Apparently, he wanted to see just how long the younger hybrid could stave off the energy attacking his body.

'_Well,' _Danny thought, _'if he wants a contest of will, he's got one. I don't plan on giving up any time soon.'_


	3. Chapter 3

**OKAY, I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE, BUT DON'T CRUCIFY ME JUST YET! SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW, BUT OTHERS DON'T: I'M IN THE MILITARY AND I'M LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE RIGHT NOW, SO MY FIRST RESPONSIBILITY IS TO FOCUS ON THAT SO I CAN DO MY JOB, THE RIGHT WAY. THANKS FOR BEING PATIENT WITH ME! THIS CHAPTER IS A BIT SHORTER, SO EXPECT MORE SOON!**

**OH, YEAH, AND DANNY PHANTOM DOESN'T BELONG TO ME. HE AND ALL OF THE RELATED CHARACTERS BELONG TO BUTCH HARTMAN AND NICKELODEON, AND SO DOES THE EPISODE "KINDRED SPIRITS," BUT THE NEW PLOT TWISTS ARE MINE!  
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**CHAPTER 3**

Fifteen minutes. For fifteen minutes, Danny stood within the confines of Vlad's machine and repelled the invading energy attempting to permeate his body. However, the longer he fought, the more fatigued he became, and the more fatigued he became, the closer the intangible force came to his ghostly core; slowly, ever so slowly, he could feel it closing in.

And still he refused to give up.

Vlad, meanwhile, waited for the boy to either succumb to the inevitable or prevail. The wait was both disappointing, because he never enjoyed being patient, and encouraging, for if the _true_ Daniel was this strong, then his clone would be even greater.

The struggle continued for another five minutes before Danny was finally able to rally another burst of strength. With the resultant rush of adrenaline, as a last resort, Danny attempted one final time to push the energy away from his core, and to his surprise, it was easy. With his vigor renewed, he continued to fight it, forcing it almost completely out of his body before it wouldn't go any further; he realized that the energy was now confined to the cuffs in his wrists, and experimentally lifted his left hand. He spread his fingers open, then wriggled them to be sure that he could still move them normally. He could still feel the strange thrumming sensation in his wrists, which told him that he wasn't out of harm's way yet, but he also knew that he was safer than he was when he'd woken. For now, at least.

He had to take Vlad by surprise somehow. If he could break out of the container before the millionaire knew what was happening, perhaps he would have a chance to get away by the time the man knew what exactly had occurred. But the question was: How? He couldn't exactly use his ghost powers, because that would mean giving in to Vlad's wish by transforming and taking on his ghost half, which would give the fruit loop a DNA sample to work with. No. He had to get creative with this one.

Danny looked down at Plasmius, who was still watching him with interest. Either the man had no idea that Danny was up to something, or he did, and he very much wanted to see it.

With that thought, Danny put his mind to finding a solution for his current problem. He looked around the interior of the container, hoping to find some loose wiring or some other object that he might use to do some damage, but Vlad seemed to have prepared quite well. Or perhaps not well enough. . . .

Danny tugged on the cuffs around his wrists. The cable connected to them was flexible and retracted into the side of the containment unit when released. This would allow the detainee to struggle against his bonds without severely injuring himself, but still keep him confined inside the vessel. With that realization, Danny pulled both of his wrists toward his center, bringing the electrified cuffs closer to one another. As he fought both Vlad's energy and the retracting mechanism within the walls of the device surrounding him, he thought about exactly what he was doing, and hoped it wouldn't kill him.

His body was completing a circuit within Vlad's machine, but at the same time, his body was also increasing the amount of matter through which the electricity had to travel; the circuit would be stronger if _he_ weren't in the middle of it. If he could bring the cuffs together and provide a stronger connection, perhaps the boost in the flow of power, however small, would overload the machine or force a circuit breaker in Vlad's house to short out, causing a disruption in the power feeding the lab. If it didn't end his life in the process.

Vlad, on the other hand, knew exactly what Danny was planning, and he knew that it would work to the boy's benefit, because the amount of power generated by the machine had been carefully calculated, down to the last volt, and this was the one thing that he had been unable to prepare for when building the device. Insulating the cables to prevent an overload would have also insulated Daniel's body, shielding him from the effects of the ectoplasm-laced electricity. He simply built the machine the way it was, in the hope that young Mr. Fenton would be unable to find its weakness. Unfortunately, he had been incorrect.

Without further hesitation, he bared his fangs in a sinister snarl and growled at 'Maddie.'

"Turn it up! Level eight! Quickly, before he can make contact with the cuffs!"

"Acknowledged, Darling!" The hologram replied, twisting the dial on the machine even further.

Danny was only a couple of inches short of his goal when the power in his wrists swelled and doubled in intensity. The change was so dramatic that he lost focus, and his hands jerked away from each other. Danny had no choice; his thoughts were scattered and chaotic now, allowing the energy new purchase on its path through his body. It surged through his muscles and organs once again, this time with such strength that he cried out in pain. Before he could stop the essence in its tracks, it surged toward his spectral core and attacked it.

And this time, without anything holding it back, it broke the barrier and forced Danny's ghost energy to emerge. A white ring burst into existence around the teen's waist and split horizontally, doubling into a pair; one moved up over his torso, and the other moved down over his legs, coating his human form with his ghostly one.

Danny clenched his jaw, partly because of the pain, and partly because he had who-knows how many volts of electricity flowing through his body. Every muscle felt like it was tearing itself to pieces, but he had to avoid transforming, so he began to withdraw the energy, pulling it back toward his center. The rings traversing his body stopped at his shoulders and knees, then slowly moved toward one another, albeit only for a second, before halting again. He half-growled, half-groaned with exertion as he attempted to force his spectral half back into his body.

Vlad was surprised. But he was also angry. Daniel's resistance was much higher than he'd anticipated, and he didn't want to see another plan (especially one as expensive and pain-staking as this) flushed down the proverbial toilet simply because a _child_ was being hard-headed and stubborn.

"Level ten!" He snapped, approaching a computer panel to the left of the machine, opposite the side where "Maddie" was standing.

"Certainly, Darling!"

Vlad waited at the computer panel for Daniel to complete his transformation. There would be a moment during the change, as Danny's rings of light dissipated and his human energy was locked away in his core, when both his ghost energy and his human energy existed at the same time within his body. At exactly that moment, Vlad would activate a program within the computer, which would do two things: cut power to the machine and activate a mechanism that would extract a DNA sample from Danny's body. Vlad grinned as "Maddie" turned up the machine once again.

The pain in Danny's body hit a whole new level as Vlad increased the machine's power yet again. He continued to lose control, and the rings of light around his body moved apart again. He strained to pull them together, but they only paused for a brief moment before continuing their journey over his body. He yelled in both pain and frustration, feeling his control slip away, and tugged one final time at his power.

Vlad smiled as Danny screamed. He looked at the video feed on his computer screen, which gave him a very clear view of Daniel's pained expression, and told him that the time for action was close. He could tell the boy was becoming increasingly frustrated, and partially _because_ of that frustration, he was losing control. As the rings of ghostly light approached Danny's wrists and ankles, Vlad positioned his hand over the appropriate button on his terminal and waited. The bands passed over Danny's hands and feet and began losing their solidity; Vlad ever so gently touched the button, waiting for just the right. . . .

_Now!_

At the exact moment that the rings of light dissolved, there was an instant when Danny's ghostly power flared and squelched his human self, forcing it into his core before settling upon his body. This was the moment when both of his entities existed together within Danny, the moment when he existed as both a human and a ghost at the same time.

It was a microsecond before this phenomenon that Vlad's hand twitched downward and activated the mechanism in the machine. His timing couldn't have been more perfect.

The machine seemed to die, leaving Danny's mind with an eerie silence that he hadn't noticed was missing. He was still in pain, but he wasn't screaming anymore; his voice had left him mere moments after he had begun to utter his cries of anguish, but he couldn't suppress a grunt of discomfort as something stabbed him in the back, just to the right of his spine. He would have bet it was a needle, and he wasn't wrong.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Thanks again for reading! Sorry again for the delay! I plan on doing some writing this weekend, so hopefully there will be more by Monday! By the way, I also have written work in my DevianArt account! Just go to .com and search for Oreochema! See you there!


	4. Chapter 4

**OKAY! I SET OUT TO FINISH A SECOND CHAPTER THIS WEEKEND, AND I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THE FEAT! SURE, I'M CUTTING IT A LITTLE CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT, BUT AT LEAST IT GOT DONE! ANYWAY, HERE IS CHAPTER FOUR! NOT AS MUCH ACTION IN THIS ONE, BUT I PROMISE THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL INDEED HAVE SOME EPIC-NESS! PLEASE ENJOY! OH, YES, DANNY PHANTOM AND THE RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS BELONG TO BUTCH HARTMAN AND NICKELODEON, NOT TO ME. SO THE EPISODE 'KINDRED SPIRITS.' I JUST ADDED THESE NEW TWISTS.**

**CHAPTER 4**

Vlad Masters held up the vial filled with Danny's DNA sample. The liquid was a rather unattractive shade of brown: the red of Daniel's blood mixed with the green of his ectoplasm. And even as unappealing as the substance appeared, Vlad couldn't have been more ecstatic to have it in his hands. He glanced at the containment unit where Danny was still confined; the boy was hardly standing, and his head hung low to his chest. Perhaps he was unconscious.

Not that Vlad really cared. He hadn't even bothered to check. Besides, Danny would be dead soon anyway, and what better way to accomplish the task than with the child's own duplicate? The display would be quite satisfactory, even with himself as the only spectator.

Vlad approached a table covered in laboratory equipment and donned a lab coat, then began his work, studying the fluid he had extracted from Daniel's body and preparing it for its administration to the clone. He had been at work for half an hour when he heard the tell-tale sound of approaching feet on the rough concrete floor. He turned to see Danielle, young Fenton's feminine side, walking toward him in her human guise.

"Danielle!" He crooned. "What a lovely surprise to see you, my dear! But you _do_ know how I feel about my work: you mustn't come into the lab while I'm busy." The millionaire flashed a bright smile at the girl and reached down to pat her shoulder.

"Hi, Dad! I just came to see if you needed anything! You've been down here for a long time."

"Well. . . ." Vlad allowed his sentence to trail off as he feigned thought. "I could use a glass of water. Perhaps with some ice?"

"Of course, Daddy!" Danielle beamed at her 'dad' and turned to retrieve the requested item. Vlad watched her walk away.

_'Of course, once my work is complete, your usefulness shall be as well, and I shall no longer have need of you.'_

Vlad smirked and turned back to his work, pausing only to accept the glass of water Danielle brought for him several minutes later, and to watch her leave as he drank. The girl was clueless as to his intentions, and he liked that.

He also liked the idea that Daniel's clone would be the one to eliminate the true Daniel. Perhaps he would go even further and use the duplicate to destroy the girl, as well.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Two hours later, the serum was finished, sealed in an airtight vaccine bottle like those found in hospitals. Vlad had devised a substance consisting mostly of the DNA sample extracted from Daniel's body, but other elements and chemicals were present as well. He had even infused it with some of his own ghost-half's more powerful ectoplasm, enhancing the power that the clone would receive upon administration of the serum. His creation would be, could be, nothing less than perfect.

Vlad glanced toward the containment unit; Daniel still hadn't moved. How disappointing. Perhaps he wasn't so strong after all. He had certainly showed potential during his forced transformation, but now? Well. . . .

"How close is the clone to being ready?" Vlad spoke into the air, knowing that his Maddie program was listening.

"The clone has reached its prime readiness level, Darling! It is ready to receive the DNA sample as of six minutes, thirteen seconds ago."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Dear!"

Vlad removed his lab coat, folded it, and placed it on the work table next to a microscope, then picked up a syringe and filled it with the serum he had created. He carried it to the real Danny's containment unit and with his free left hand knocked gently on the hardened window. He smiled at Danny.

"I don't know if you can hear me, Daniel, but I would like to say thank you for your help." Then with mock sincerity he said, "I don't know how I can repay you."

"I know how." Danny's voice returned. "You can let me help you out with that needle!"

Vlad spun around to see Danny Phantom hovering eye-to-eye with him, his hand glowing with a pent-up energy blast. Danny reached toward Vlad's chest and opened his hand, releasing the ectoplasmic energy at the same time, but Vlad was quicker. Even through his confusion, the years of practice he had spent with his spectral side took over. He grabbed Danny's wrist and jerked it upward, allowing the energy burst to pass harmlessly over his left shoulder and impact high on the wall behind him. Then he channeled a burst of his own energy through the hand holding Danny's wrist. Danny clenched his jaws in pain as the man overloaded him with the ectoplasmic blast.

Vlad snarled and squeezed Danny's wrist. In an effort to protect the syringe, he pulled his right hand backward and around his waist, away from the ghost boy, and positioned the same elbow in Danny's stomach. He flexed his shoulder and threw his elbow backward, flinging Danny overhead and behind him, directly toward the containment unit. At the last second, he turned himself and the boy intangible and pushed Danny through the front of the machine, releasing him as soon as the boy was inside. Before Danny could recover, Vlad pressed a button next to the 'Release' control, and the device began to glow a subtle pink color.

Danny, having been shoved upside down into the machine, struggled to reorient himself. As soon as he was upright once more, he attempted to phase through the barrier, but found himself unable to do so. He snarled defiantly at Vlad and punched the reinforced glass between them. Before he could begin yelling insults, however, Vlad seized the opening.

"How did you get out?" He shouted, taking on his ghost form as he spoke.

"Oh, come on!" Danny replied, touching his double's chest and seeming to absorb it into his body. "You know as well as I do that we can use our powers in human form!"

"Of course we can, but you duplicated your form without transforming! Even I can't use that much ghost energy without shifting over to my ghost half!"

"Think outside the box, fruit loop! I phased out of here, left, transformed, and _then _created the duplicate! The duplicate shifted back to human form and took my place in your machine, and _I_ came back to destroy your precious clone!"

Vlad grinned, revealing his fangs in a vampiric smile. "And how did that work out for you?"

Danny's glare only intensified in response.

"We'll see how defiant you are when I get done with you."

Vlad checked the syringe to be sure that it was undamaged, then turned and approached the containment unit holding Danny's clone. He pressed a series of characters on the number pad next to the bio-monitor and waited for the hatch to slide open. When the clone had been fully revealed, Vlad reached forward and checked all of the intravenous lines leading to the various parts of the duplicate's body. With the exception of the needle in its hand, the one providing the sedative and keeping the clone asleep, Vlad removed all of them. He then injected the serum into the tube through which the sedative was flowing.

Danny watched, unable to act, as the brownish substance from Vlad's syringe flowed into his clone's body. When finally it was gone, Vlad gently removed the IV of sedative from the copy's hand and returned to the lab table, where he placed the syringe exactly where he had found it moments before. He leaned against the table and waited.

For several minutes, nothing seemed to happen, and then the clone gasped and opened its eyes. With an expression of alarm on his face, he leapt out of the machine and stood on the floor fists clenched in preparation for some sort of attack. When it opened its mouth to speak, the true Danny noticed it had a pair of fangs, no doubt a byproduct of something Vlad had done to it.

"Where am I?" It spoke in a voice similar to Danny's, but also different. The vampire-like canine teeth interfered with his speech.

"You're home." Vlad replied. "Welcome, son."

The clone turned and looked at Vlad for a moment, then stood up straighter and ran his fingers through his hair. "Dad?"

"Yes, son. I have waited a long time to see you, and I have much to teach. But first, I must tell you of your destiny."

"My destiny?"

"Of course, Child. And there is much to learn. You may know some of what I have to tell you, or all of it may be new, but it must be told. Come with me and I will impart to you what I know."

Vlad approached 'Danny' and laid a hand on his shoulder, then guided him from the room. Danny didn't see them again for two hours, and when they returned, both Vlad and the new 'Danny' were smiling at him with a predatory glee.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

I realize these last couple of chapters have been a bit on the short side. Usually I upload word documents that are about four to five pages long, but these most recent uploads were only about three pages apiece. At any rate, the chapter size should increase soon, but that means they'll take a little longer to write, so we'll see what happens. Have a wonderful week, and God bless!

-Oreo (I am not a cookie!)


	5. Chapter 5

**HEY, EVERYBODY! I'M UPDATING AGAIN ALREADY! AS IT TURNS OUT, WHATEVER ASSIGNMENT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO FOR HOMEWORK TONIGHT DIDN'T WORK OUT, SO I HAD OODLES OF FREE TIME. GUESS WHAT I DID WITH IT? THAT'S RIGHT! I WROTE ANOTHER CHAPTER! THE ACTION PICKS UP A LITTLE, BUT NOT TOO MUCH, ALTHOUGH THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL SOLVE THAT PROBLEM. AND NOW FOR DISCLAIMERS: DANNY PHANTOM, ALL OF IT'S RELATED CHARACTERS, AND THE EPISODE 'KINDRED SPIRITS' BELONG TO BUTCH HARTMAN AND NICKELODEON. THE INDIVIDUAL IDEAS PRESENTED IN THIS NEW PLOT-TWIST, HOWEVER, ARE MINE.  
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**CHAPTER 5**

Danny Phantom watched as Vlad Plasmius and the clone reentered the lab, both wary of what might happen, and somewhat afraid, for he knew that Vlad had certainly given this duplicate power and training that he himself had no time to acquire, what with school and family to deal with on a daily basis. He did not, however, allow his fear to show, for he knew that if he did, both of his opponents would seize it and use it against him. He couldn't afford that.

He did, however, realize that this clone was only hours old, and a few hours was not nearly enough time to master everything that Vlad could teach, super-ghost or not. This knowledge was enough to allay most of Danny's fears.

Vlad approached the containment unit in which he had sealed Danny two hours before and reached for the control pad. Danny readied himself, his body coiled almost too tight; if he were any more tense, he would certainly make a mistake upon exiting the chamber. Vlad first deactivated the energy that was negating Danny's ghost abilities, then pressed the button that would open the device. Danny, however, didn't wait for the hatch to open. He phased through it even as it hissed and eased upward, tackling Plasmius and sending him to the floor.

Danny curled his right hand into a fist and energized it with ectoplasmic energy, but as he flexed his arm and brought it downward, Vlad became intangible and phased through the floor of the lab. Danny halted mid-swing, not wanting to break his hand on the concrete. He jerked his head up and immediately began to search the lab for Vlad, but the other half-ghost was nowhere to be found.

The other Danny spoke. "I wouldn't worry about him, if I were you."

"Oh, really? And you're a threat because?" Danny stood up and faced the clone head-on, teeth bared in an angry snarl. "You, 'Danny Phantom,' are in way over your head. You've had your powers for all of a few hours. Mine, on the other hand, are months old!" Danny's hands glowed green, energy swirling away in little tendrils.

"First off," the clone replied, anger coloring his voice, "My name is Michael, Mike for short, and second: I may be inexperienced, but I have _more _power than you. I may not be able to do all of the same things, but what I _can _do is far more potent."

"If you're so confident, let's put you to the test, shall we, 'Mike?'" Danny faced the clone and raised a hand palm-up. He curled his first two fingers toward his palm in a summoning gesture, then repeated the motion, the universal signal for 'Bring it on!'

Mike, who had remained in his phantom form during the exchange, charged his own hands with energy. Danny noted that unlike his own ectoplasm, which was green and almost flame-like, Mike's was blue, and had a liquid quality to it. It seemed to drip from Michael's hands like water, only to vanish an inch or so away from his jumpsuit-covered skin. The effect was almost . . . mesmerizing.

Another peculiar thing Danny noticed about Mike was that his eyes were blue, like those of his own human form, and like the other boy's ectoplasm.

But he had no time to contemplate the differences between the two of them. He was already dodging attacks. Almost immediately upon charging his hands with energy, Mike released a jet of ectoplasm aimed at Danny's chest. Danny summoned a shield in response, allowing his barrier to absorb Mike's attack before retaliating with an energy blast of his own. Mike dodged.

Danny flexed his right leg and leapt forward, shooting ectoplasm and charging at the same time. He managed to hit Mike in the left shoulder, but the clone didn't flinch, or even utter a cry of pain; he simply stood there. Danny zigged to the right and kept coming, turning his body intangible when Mike thought to strike back with more ectoplasmic energy. Danny smiled.

"Is that the best you can do, _copy?_" Danny taunted as he hit Mike in the stomach with another blast. "You'll have to step up your game if you want to beat me!"

Danny closed in on the clone and grabbed the front of his jumpsuit, energizing his other fist and striking a direct blow to Mike's face. Danny released the other ghost, who fell to his knees on the floor. Danny stood over the boy and waited for a reaction. When none was offered, Danny took a step back and inhaled, preparing a ghostly wail to destroy the abomination before him. He didn't get the chance to unleash it. He hadn't even completely filled his lungs when he was grabbed from behind in a choke hold.

"You underestimate me." A voice whispered in his ear. "You assume that because I do not share the experience of many battles and years of practice, I cannot do what you can do. But you're wrong, Daniel. You are so wrong."

The Mike lying on the floor vanished, vaporizing like smoke and ceasing to exist. The arm around Danny's throat tightened.

But Danny was too angry, too determined to be afraid. He clamped his jaws shut and grunted as he shifted his weight and threw Mike forward over his head, but instead of letting go, as Danny had expected he would, the clone hung on for dear life, taking the other ghost boy with him to the floor. Only when Danny was sprawled on his stomach, recovering from lack of oxygen and struggling to get up, did Mike release his grip and hop to his feet. He circled to Danny's side and kicked him in the ribs.

"Still think I'm powerless?"

Danny rolled away, vanishing as he did so. "I never said you were powerless." Danny replied from somewhere on the floor. "I just said that I was more powerful." He paused, then added, "and that I was better."

Mike ignored the jibe at his pride. "I don't know if I'd say you're better."

Danny's voice originated from a new location, somewhere behind Mike. "And why is that?"

"Well," Michael stalled, "you're already cheating. Anyone can pull off the disappearing act. I can, too." To emphasize his point, Mike imitated Danny's invisibility move.

"You call this cheating, huh?" Danny remained unseen. "We're ghosts; if using the abilities we have is cheating, then we may as well change back to our human forms and fight that way."

Mike was no longer on the floor. Danny heard his opponent's voice come from somewhere behind him, but he didn't bother to turn around. "I'm glad you see it that way," the boy replied, "because with my enhanced powers, it doesn't matter if you're invisible; I can see you."

Even as surprised as he was, Danny didn't bother trying to turn around. It would be a waste of time and energy. Instead, he formed a shield at his back, darting forward as he did so. However, he was a split second too late; Mike was already between Danny and his protective barrier. Using Phantom's still-intact shield as leverage, Michael spun his body so he was parallel to the floor and planted his hands on Danny's shield, then thrust both of his feet into Danny's back, sending the older ghost careening toward the wall.

Danny, too startled to think, never thought to phase through the barrier. He hit the wall sideways, jarring his right shoulder and becoming visible once more; his ecto-shield vanished and he dropped to the floor, somehow landing on his feet. With a grimace, raised his left arm, hand glowing green, and shot plasma in Mike's direction, but the boy was no longer there. Danny blinked in surprise when the clone materialized in front of him and grabbed his throat, lifting him off the floor at the same time. Danny reached up and grabbed at Mike's arm. The clone's strength was incredible.

"I told you: You underestimate me, and that's a mistake, Daniel. I'm going to-"

"Oh, shut up!" Danny growled past the fingers wrapped around his windpipe. "If you're going to do something, do it! Don't waste your time, or mine, with a bunch of monologue like _Uncle Vladdy_ does. It's annoying! Just like y-"

Danny was cut off as Mike's fingers tightened around his throat. "_Don't _insult me!"

Danny couldn't breathe, but he managed a grin. He released Mike's arm with one hand and made an obscene gesture, showing Mike the back of his hand before folding every finger but one into his palm. _'How's this for an insult?'_ He thought as gray began to creep in at the edges of his vision.

Mike, enraged at having been flipped off, curled his free hand into a fist and threw it at Danny's ribcage. He was satisfied with a subtle _crack!_ as several ribs did just that. He dropped the ghost boy and allowed him a moment of coughing before he kicked him in the side again, harder this time.

Danny grunted and pulled one foot forward, rising into a kneeling position and crouching in front of Mike. The kid had no idea. . . .

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Vlad watched with satisfaction as Danny and Michael fought. So far neither had done anything very impressive, but that was perfectly fine. Mike still hadn't awoken his full power, and Daniel continued to assume that the copy was as fragile as the others.

'_But when the boy's DNA is completely bonded to the clone's, there will be no mercy, and there will be no reprieve.'_

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Danny braced his foot on the floor and lunged forward, knocking Michael's feet out from under him and bringing him down to his level. The two of them rolled on the floor, exchanging blows for a few moments, before Mike ended up sitting on Danny's waist. He immediately began to throw punches, but Danny crossed his arms over his face in a blocking maneuver and summoned another ecto-shield to defend himself. Mike simply began to blast it with his ectoplasm.

Danny sank through the floor, leaving Michael alone for a moment before reemerging behind him and grabbing the collar of his jumpsuit as he floated upward. Mike kicked like a child as he struggled to free himself from his opponent's grasp, but Danny refused to let go. He quickly reached his top speed and looped back toward the floor, flinging Mike ahead of himself and releasing his grip on the jumpsuit with shout of exertion. He watched as the clone sped toward the floor unchecked.

Michael hit the ground with a resounding _thud_, accompanied by the explosive sound of concrete shattering beneath his body. Dust flew into the air and a crater formed where Mike had landed.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Another short one, I know. Hope it was good. I didn't really like how it turned out, but then again, nothing seems very good when I stare at it for too many hours. Feel free to tell me what you think, good or bad! I need the criticism! Next chapter to emerge soon!

Oh, yes, and if you like my fan fictions, I have a DeviantArt account! I don't post my fan fictions there, but some of my original stories and poetry are there if you want to take a look! Here's the link: http:/ oreochema. deviant art. com/ Just copy it and paste into your address bar, then TAKE OUT THE SPACES! (Wouldn't want you getting sent to the wrong page or something like that! :D ) I'm going to warn you, though, my art is certainly not as interesting as my stories.


	6. Chapter 6

**OKAY, HERE'S CHAPTER 6! I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR ANY OF THE RELATED CHARACTERS, NOR DO I OWN THE EPISODE 'KINDRED SPIRITS.' I DO, HOWEVER, OWN THE ORIGINAL IDEAS BEHIND THE RECREATION OF THIS EPISODE.**

**ENJOY!**

CHAPTER 6

Danny Phantom hovered above the floor of the lab, waiting for Michael, like the clones destroyed before him, to melt into a puddle of lime-colored muck. His expectations, however, went unfulfilled, for the boy below was struggling to his feet, and he had already made it as far as his hands and knees.

'_That's impossible!' _Danny thought as Mike stood and swayed, clutching his left arm. Blue ectoplasm seeped from a gash on his bicep. _'Even if that _wasn't_ enough to kill him, he should be unconscious! He should have changed back!'_

Danny watched Michael take a step forward and stagger, then attempt to regain his footing. The clone overcompensated and tripped again, but recovered, and that's when Danny noticed that there was another cut on Mike's left thigh. The wound was deep enough to effect the muscle upon which it had been inflicted and hinder the movement of the leg.

Danny shook himself out of his stupor. _'Now's my chance!' _He thought. He hovered downward until he was a foot off of the floor and then dropped, catching himself with flexed knees. _'This should do the trick.'_

Danny inhaled again, preparing a second ghostly wail, and released the gathered energy, this time without being impeded. The wavering howl sent a shockwave before it that short-circuited lab equipment and shattered glass, and when it was over, Michael was nowhere to be seen.

Until a single second later, when he popped into existence directly in front of Danny.

Danny suppressed a cry of alarm and started backpedaling, placing as much distance between himself and the clone as possible. He pushed away from the floor with his left foot and took flight, turning invisible even as he recalled that Michael could see through the ruse.

Danny saw Michael reach forward and grab hold of his ankle with a single hand, even as the color faded away and the appendage became transparent. Not that it mattered; the other ghost boy could see him anyway.

Then somehow remaining anchored to the floor, Mike tugged Danny toward him, slamming his other palm into Phantom's chest and pinning him to the ground. The first thing Danny noticed as Michael leaned down was that the clone's eyes were glowing a dark sapphire blue; the second thing was that the wounds were already healed; and the third was that some sort of energy, an immense power, was emanating from him. It was enough to give Mike the ability to hold Danny to the floor with a single hand. Not good.

Michael spoke, his voice mocking and sinister. The sound filled Danny with outright fear. "You thought it would be that easy? That you could simply push me around and I would dissolve like those _failures_ that came before me? I'm as real as you are, Daniel, and even more powerful. I'm going to-"

"You're monologue-ing again." Danny cut in, completely sincere. "You should _really_ stop doing that."

Michael's expression changed to one of confusion as he stared at Danny for several seconds, then to one of rage. With no warning, he cocked his left arm back and clenched his hand into a fist, which he ignited with his ectoplasm and powered into Danny's stomach.

The force of the blow was strong enough to extract from Danny a shout of pain and deprive his lungs of any remaining oxygen. He would have curled into the fetal position and focused on breathing, but since his entire torso was pinned to the floor, all he could do was snap his knees to his chest and wheeze for the next thirty seconds. When he finally recovered, Danny relaxed his legs again and fixed his eyes on Michael. The other boy continued to speak.

"I told you before not to underestimate me, but you did, and now you're going to suffer for it. Not to mention that little stunt you pulled a minute ago by throwing me into the floor. That's worth quite a bit of payback on its own, and it's going to cost extra."

Danny felt the pressure on his chest ease, but before he could so much as roll away, Michael kicked him in the face, then dealt a similar blow to his side. He could feel several more of his ribs crack under the force of the strike as he curled up on his side; he shouted in pain when the beating continued. He couldn't give up; there had to be a way to fight back.

Not to be left without a vulnerable target, Michael reached down and grabbed one of Danny's wrists, then turned and simply threw him across the room. He followed the motion with a ball of ectoplasm and watched as Danny collided with one of Vlad's machines.

The force of Danny's initial impact cracked the super-reinforced glass, but even as he came into contact with the huge machine, Mike's secondary plasma blast struck him in the chest, adding momentum to his body and forcing him back further. The glass crumpled inward, enveloping Danny in a blanket of artificial snow and ice. He flexed his abs and attempted to sit up, but a bout of dizziness forced him to relax for a moment. That's when Michael reached into the machine and grabbed the front of Danny's jumpsuit.

'_He must be fond of throwing things.' _Danny groggily thought as he was sent hurtling again, this time toward the ceiling. He felt a sharp pain shoot down his back as he hit, then everything faded into darkness for a moment. He was reawakened by his impact with the floor. He was laying on his stomach on the edge of the crater created earlier by Mike's body. He detected a throbbing pain in his right thigh, then pressed it from his mind, ignoring it as best he could. Danny pressed his hands into the floor and pushed himself up, then pulled his legs forward so that he was sitting on his hands and knees. He turned his head to see Michael walking toward him. "If you wanted to play catch," He wheezed, "you should have asked. We could have used your dad!"

"SHUT UP!" Mike yelled. "The only thing I want to hear out of you is screaming!"

Danny watched as the other boy raised his right hand and released a ball of ectoplasmic energy in his direction, and somehow managed to roll out of the way. He continued to struggle to his feet. "Now, what would be the fun in that?" Danny asked as he managed to get one of his feet under his body. He pushed until he was standing, albeit unsteadily, on his own two feet; his thigh began to ache again.

Mike stopped in his tracks, just out of Danny's reach. "Fun?" He chuckled. "You're worried about fun? You're going to be dead in a minute!" He leaped forward and grabbed again at Danny's throat, but Danny stepped backward.

"I don't think so. . . ." Danny trilled in a sing-song tone. He widened his stance to steady himself and lit up his hands, throwing ectoplasm back at his opponent.

Michael dodged once and ducked, avoiding several blasts from Danny, and dove forward. Danny hopped sideways, avoiding Michael but throwing off his own balance at the same time. As he stumbled across the floor, Michael rolled to his feet and charged Danny again, turning invisible halfway between them. Danny felt a hand wrap around his wrist and twist his arm behind his back. He grunted in pain as his shoulder was nearly dislocated, then screamed as he was enveloped in fire. Michael was sending an ectoplasmic energy blast throughout his entire body.

The pain seemed to last for hours, but when it was over, Michael shoved Danny forward and watched him writhe on the floor in agony, watched as he struggled to breathe because every muscle in his body felt as though it had been soaked in acid.

'_Pull it together!' _Danny thought to himself. _'He's just toying with you. Find a weakness!' _He watched Michael approach, knew more pain was coming, but still couldn't move, couldn't get up and fight back. He saw the clone reach for him and created an ecto-shield to protect himself while he thought. Michael simply brushed the barrier aside and reached toward Danny.

Danny panicked and fought past his pain, wriggling across the floor away from Michael, then rolling, increasing his speed. As he rolled, he phased through the floor, disappearing from view, but even as he fell through the floor, a force stopped him cold. Michael had reached through the concrete after him and grabbed his ankle. Danny felt himself being pulled out of his hiding place, then found himself dangling upside down, staring up into Mike's luminous eyes.

"Going somewhere?" Michael asked.

"Nope." Danny replied. "I was, but I think I'll hang around a little longer."

With no warning, Danny inhaled and unleashed another ghostly wail, funneling all of his available strength into the attack. At first, Michael seemed unfazed by the energy directed at him, but after a while two seconds of playing tough, the boy gritted his teeth and braced his feet on the floor to avoid being battered by Danny's wail. He was finally forced to drop Danny.

Dazed from being dropped on his head and neck, Danny cut off his ghostly wail, but he quickly rolled to his feet and continued. Mike crossed his forearms in front of his face and summoned a blue ectoplasmic shield, which lasted no more than three and a half seconds out of the ten-second barrage. After the shield dissipated, Michael was flung backwards and into the wall, within a gap between two of Vlad's machines. One of them was the one Danny had been thrown into.

Danny took a step forward and gasped in discomfort. The pain in his thigh had returned, and it felt as though someone had stabbed him in the leg. _'He must have fractured my femur.'_ He thought. He ignored it and took another step. When he was a few paces from Michael's unmoving form, he prepared another ghostly wail and let loose, releasing the attack point blank into the small cavity.

Danny watched as Michael's body was destroyed. The edges of his form became blurry, like an unfocused picture, and blue ectoplasm began to escape through his skin, seeming more like steam than water now that it was being disrupted by Danny's energy. The boy woke and screamed, his eyes still aglow with blue fire, and ignited his hands with energy, but the force of Danny's wail prevented him from rising and attacking.

Danny felt his strength fading and thought for a moment that he might give up, but then, Michael was gone, nothing but a charred, smoldering section of cement wall and floor where he had been sitting a moment before. Danny fell to his knees, out of breath, and gave a quick sigh. Michael was gone.

A cry of rage echoed through the room. Danny scrambled to his feet and turned around to find Vlad hovering above the floor of the room, his deadly gaze focused on the remaining ghost child. Plasmius was pissed.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Okay, so let me know what you thought! If there's anything wrong, grammar-wise or even regarding continuity within the story, feel free to correct me. I was tired when I wrote this chapter and I can guarantee I made more mistakes than usual. Anyway, please enjoy! I look forward to posting the next chapter soon! If it doesn't go up this week, it will happen in the coming weekend, which is an extended one for me! Keep it surreal!

-Oreochema


	7. Chapter 7

**OKAY, HERE'S CHAPTER 7! I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR ANY OF THE RELATED CHARACTERS, NOR DO I OWN THE EPISODE 'KINDRED SPIRITS.' I DO, HOWEVER, OWN THE ORIGINAL IDEAS BEHIND THE RECREATION OF THIS EPISODE.**

**ENJOY!**

CHAPTER 7

Vlad had already ignited his hands with his distinctly-colored ectoplasm, and Danny briefly realized that in any other situation, he might laugh at the thought of something pink being dangerous. Now, however, he knew that he could very easily die here. Vlad possessed an immeasurably larger amount of experience in the use of their ghost powers, and even as advanced as the teen had become, Danny's own ability paled in comparison to the older man's.

Danny saw Vlad's hands clench into fists, knew that he should move before it was too late, but simply watched as the villain's feet came into contact with the floor and brought him closer. There was no more than four feet between the two of them when a familiar voice echoed through the destroyed lab, halting Vlad mid-stride.

"What happened? Daddy, are you okay?"

As Vlad turned to see the source of the query, Danny caught a glimpse of Danielle's shocked face, which briefly vanished behind Vlad's flapping cape. Danny listened to their conversation, still paralyzed with what he finally recognized as fear.

"Danielle, dearest! You're home! To answer your question, I am fine. But unfortunately, it seems young Fenton was more determined than we thought. He's destroyed your brother."

"What? But, how?" Danni gasped. "No. It doesn't matter. Where is he?"

Vlad turned aside, affording Danielle a view of her "cousin," at the same time gesturing with his left hand toward the renowned ghost boy.

Danielle's face clouded with rage. "_You!_" She half-yelled, half-growled, shifting into her ghost form. "You're gonna pay for what you did to my brother! And trying to hurt my dad!"

Danny didn't immediately acknowledge; he was still trying to shake off the fear-induced stupor clouding his mind. "I just-" He clenched his jaw, willing clarity to return to his thoughts. "Your brother? That was just a clone of _me_! Technically, _you're_ a clone of me!" Danny paused and pointed at Vlad. "And you're not even worth _his_ time! To him, you're just a failure like all the others; he even used my DNA to stabilize the other clone while you were gone, and I can guarantee he was going to destroy you the moment you got back from wherever the heck it was you were!"

"You're a liar!" Danni returned, drifting upward as she allowed her ghost form to hover several inches from the floor.

"Am I?" Asked Danny. "Ask your 'dad' and find out for yourself!"

Danielle's eyes flicked toward Vlad. "He's lying, isn't he, Dad?"

"Of course he is, Dear. The only reason I gave the DNA to the clone was to be sure it would not be harmful to you. I couldn't take the risk of destroying you while trying to help you."

Danielle returned her attention to Danny. "See? I told you!"

"And you still don't think he could be lying to you? He told me himself that every clone besides your 'brother' was a mistake, and that includes you."

"No! I'm done listening to you!" Danielle charged her hands with ectoplasmic energy and sent a blast toward Danny.

Danny turned sideways in response, allowing the energy to pass harmlessly to the side, then fisted his hands, calling forth his own power. The summoned ectoplasm immediately fizzled out. "What the-!" Danny attempted again to ignite his hands, but without success. Unnidden, a ring of light appeared around his waist, splitting into two as his weakened ghost half was forced to retreat from the physical world and take shelter within his body.

Vlad grinned and turned to face Danny. "It seems, my boy, that you've used up your power."

Danny looked down, taking in the sight of his now-obviously human body. He was once more clothed in his blue jeans and white t-shirt with a red oval on the chest. His arms, no longer covered by his black-and-white jumpsuit, were bare; his body no longer glowed. He briefly noticed the electrical burns on his arms and wrists caused by Vlad's earlier treatment.

The only thing Danny could manage to say was "Oh, jeez" before a blast of green light impacted with his chest, knocked him into the air and sent him hurtling backward. He ended up crammed inside Vlad's machine again, this time with an assortment of cuts on his left shoulder and arm as he clipped one side of the shattered window on the way in. The resistance at his left side had jerked him sideways as he landed, leaving his injured side exposed and his left leg hanging from the front of the machine; a shard of glass was digging into the back of his calf. He heard Danni's boots crushing more glass as she approached from her position next to Vlad.

"You're weak." She said. "Just like a liar should be."

Danny saw the girl's hand reach for him and slapped it away, wincing with pain as his lacerated arm objected to the movement. "Why would I lie to you? Tell me what reason I could possibly have for keeping the truth from you."

"You hate my dad. You want me to turn against him!"

"But I don't-"

"But nothing!" Danielle reached forward again and buried her hands in the front of Danny's shirt. She dragged him out of the machine, dropped him on the floor, and planted her left foot on his chest to pin him down.

Danny grabbed the girl's ankle. "So that's it? You're just going to kill me? You don't even know my half of the story!"

Vlad, who had been silent up to this point, gave a low chuckle. "Daniel, please. That would imply that the world is in some way fair. And we both know it's not."

"Shut up, Plasmius!" Yelled Danny, feeling a decrease in pressure as Danielle lifted her foot from his chest. "I wasn't-" He was cut off when Danni kicked him in the face; she replaced her foot on top of his ribcage, applying more pressure than before.

"Don't talk to my dad like that!"

Danny turned his head and spit a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "He's my worst enemy! I'm not going to kiss his feet! You're just lucky I don't have my ghost powers right now or I'd-"

He was halted mid-syllable as Danni bent over him and dug her fingers into his windpipe. "What would you do? You'd have to go through me! And we both know that you're too weak. Not to mention I'm stronger."

Danny clenched his jaw and held his breath. No point in arguing. He couldn't breathe enough to speak, anyway.

Vlad jumped in again. "Danielle, be a dear and kill him for me, will you?"

"But, Dad, couldn't I toy with him for a bit? Besides, you could use him to start a new clone, right?"

"It's too risky, Dear. He might recover and harm one of us. No. We need him dead. Now."

Danielle hesitated. Her grip on Danny's throat eased.

"Did you hear me, Danielle?"

"Yeah. I just. . . ."

"Then take care of it. Now."

Danielle turned her attention back to Danny. He was grinning.

The girl frowned at him. "What's so funny?"

Danny's response was to jerk himself to the right and roll away from Danielle, forcing her to let go of his neck. Of course he was headed straight for Vlad, but that was part of the plan. He might be weak, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight.

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Sorry it took me so long to get this uploaded! I've been pretty busy lately, what with a big test coming up, not to mention I haven't had my normal urge to write lately. I think this chapter is pretty weak, but I'm looking forward to the next one; it should be better!


	8. Chapter 8

**OKAY! HERE'S CHAPTER 8! THIS ONE IS SHORT, TOO, BUT I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING TONIGHT, AND WITH WHAT'S COMING NEXT, THE CHAPTER HAD TO END WHERE IT ENDS.**

**OH, YES, AND I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS CONTAINED THEREIN. THEY ALL BELONG TO BUTCH HARTMAN, AS DOES THE EPISODE "KINDRED SPIRITS." HOWEVER, THE IDEAS BEHIND THIS TWIST BELONG TO ME.**

CHAPTER 8

Danielle grunted as Danny pulled away from her, and then lit up her hands with ectoplasm. Danny, however, had already stopped rolling; he was on his back for only a second more before he kicked his feet up and over his head, rolling backward this time and somehow performing a backwards somersault to his feet. Not half a second later, green energy splashed the floor where he had been, blackening and heating the concrete.

Everything froze for a single forever-second as Danny stared at Vlad, then turned and looked at Danielle, whose raised fists were enveloped in green fire. Then Danny jumped into action again. He darted toward Danielle, ducking under two blasts from her hands, then performing a floor-slide past her as she attempted to roundhouse him. He popped up from the floor and grabbed Danni in a choke-hold; his bleeding left arm was wrapped around her neck and his right hand gripped his left, securing it in place at her throat. She started to shift her weight, but Danny whispered in her ear.

"Wait!"

She paused.

Danny spoke almost too quietly for even Danielle to hear. "Just let me prove it to you."

Danielle allowed the energy around her hands to dissipate. She even shifted from her ghost form to her human one, which elicited a raised eyebrow from Plasmius, but her hands remained fixed to the boy's arm.

Danny yelled at Vlad, who simply stood where he had stopped, seemingly content with watching things play out. "Okay, Plasmius! Why don't you prove that Danielle means something to you? If you don't want me to suffocate her right here and now, come over here and help her. Try and stop me."

Vlad's expression of mild curiosity turned to one of irritation. "Are you still trying to convince my own daughter that I would allow her to come to harm? Please. If I thought she were in any real danger, I would have been next to you before you had even issued your challenge. But as it stands, I'm certain the girl can protect herself. Especially against you."

Danny tightened his grip on Daniel's throat. "Nice try, Vlad. That ploy won't work with me. I know you're just playing chicken! Now come here and-"

"Chicken, huh? Fine. If you want to challenge me so badly," Vlad vanished into thin air, reappearing a microsecond later next to Danny's right arm, his face a mere inch-and-a-half from Danny's. "I'll acquiesce."

With no further warning, Vlad laid his right hand on one of Danielle's wrists and his left on Danny's shoulder. He turned Danielle intangible and pulled her from Danny's grasp, then gently pushed her away.

Without thinking, Danny shifted his now-empty arms into a cross-block position in a futile attempt to protect his face.

As soon as he and Danielle were no longer touching, Vlad lit his hands with ectoplasm and grabbed Danny's wrists, simultaneously pressing his thumbs into the palms of Danny's hands and forcing the boy's hands backward in a cruel imitation of the child's game 'mercy.' He continued to apply pressure until Danny dropped to his knees to alleviate the pain.

Vlad was about to send a wave of ectoplasmic energy through Danny's body when he was interrupted.

"Daddy, wait!"

"I told you to kill him, Danielle. You hesitated. Why?"

"I wanted to-"

"Nevermind. Next time I ask you to do something, I expect it done. Immediately and correctly. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, but-"

"No excuses."

This time Danny spoke. "See, Danielle? All he wants from you is obedience. Nothing more."

Vlad applied more pressure to Danny's hands. "I suggest you keep your peace, Daniel."

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Danielle?"

"He's right, isn't he? You always did treat me and the original clones differently. You spent all of your time down here in the lab checking on that last clone, and you never wanted me around. Even when all I wanted to do was help."

Vlad was silent for several moments before he finally answered. "You're letting him get inside your head, Dearest."

"No, I'm not." Danielle replied. A ring of white light appeared around her waist, and she shifted into her ghost form. "You lied to me!"

"I lie to a lot of people, Danielle. You're no different. You simply learned the truth. Unfortunately for you, this means you are now my enemy. My enemies do not exist for very long." Vlad pulled Danny to his feet and spun him around so that his arms were pinned behind his back. "If you wish to fight me, so be it, but I promise you that without a genetic sample of your own to stabilize your form, you will dissolve like the other clones before you. Even now, you are likely degrading."

"I don't care!" Danni yelled, fisting her hands and summoning her power. "Now let go of my cousin and fight me!"

Vlad chuckled. "My dear, I do not need to release Daniel to lay waste to you."

Danny felt a strange tugging sensation as Vlad duplicated his form and sent the copy forward. The copy stopped halfway between the two parties and snapped the fingers of his right hand, calling forth the pink-colored ectoplasm unique to Plasmius's ghost form. It aimed the hand at Danielle and released a blast of energy.

Danni summoned a shield, but as Vlad had predicted, her power was insufficient, and the barrier gave away as the senior ghost's attack broke through and struck Danielle in the left shoulder. She cried out in pain as she was knocked off-balance. The force of Vlad's blast spun Danielle in a quick half-circle, and she used the momentum to take flight. As she floated upward, she turned herself invisible, vanishing as Vlad's duplicate threw another energy blast in her direction. He missed.

Danny saw droplets of ectoplasm on the floor where Danielle had been standing and knew that her wound was serious. "Danielle, run! Vlad will kill you if you stay here!"

"But Danny! He'll-"

"_I'll_ be fine! I've dealt with this goon before. I can do it again! Just go!"

"I'll go get help!"

"Fine, just as long as you get away from here! Now go!"

Danny heard nothing more from her after that, and he only knew the girl had left when he found himself staring once again into Vlad's eyes. Or rather, those of his duplicate.

Danny contemplated his current situation. He was powerless at the moment; Vlad could create as many copies as he wanted just to beat the living daylights out of him; and he was already in a fair amount of pain._'This should be fun.'_ He thought.

Vlad's copy grinned, ignited its right hand, and clenched it into a fist. "This should be fun." He said.

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

Okay, then! Let me know what you think, if you are so inclined! I hope to write again soon, but I may not get to it for a couple more days. We'll see. Don't forget to check out some of my other stuff on DeviantArt! Just go to the website and type in my pen name! My writing is better than my drawing for now, so that's what you want to look at if you've got the time! Thanks for all the views and the interest you've been showing!

Keep it Surreal!

-Oreochema


	9. Chapter 9

**OKAY! CHAPTER 9! AS I HAVE STATED SO MANY TIME BEFORE, I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR THE CHARACTERS CONTAINED WITHIN THE SHOW, OR THE EPISODE "KINDRED SPIRITS"; THEY ALL BELONG TO BUTCH HARTMAN AND NICKELODEON AND ALL THAT. YADDA YADDA YADDA. YOU ALL KNOW THIS ALREADY. ANYHOW, ENJOY THE NEXT CHAPTER!**

CHAPTER 9

There is a single difference between a ghost's self-generated duplicate and a clone like those created by Vlad. When a ghost duplicates his form, he is creating solid copies of his spectral body while simultaneously splitting his consciousness among them. Any proficient multi-tasker is easily capable of using each copy for a different purpose, thereby exponentially increasing the number of things he can do at one time.

Vlad, however, was not engaged in multiple tasks. "Both" of him were focused on a single goal: to make Danny suffer.

Danny stared at the Vlad in front of him for what felt like an hour, but it couldn't have been more than a second or two. And it didn't even take him _that_ long to realize that Vlad wanted him dead. . . but not before making him suffer for the destruction he had sewn.

The Vlad in front of Danny clenched his right hand into a fist and summoned his distinctively pink energy. He grinned and commented, "This should be fun."

With a grunt, Danny jerked his body to the left, twisting his shoulders in an attempt to extricate himself from Vlad's grip, but the man held him fast. The duplicate, keeping his fist low, cocked his arm back and delivered a low-blow to Danny's midsection that immediately forced the air from his lungs and paralyzed his diaphragm. He couldn't breathe. He slumped forward as his knees went weak, but Vlad held him up.

Not to mention Danny's already-injured ribs. He knew that several of them were cracked; he had felt, and heard, the result of Michael's rage earlier. And there was no telling if any of them were broken. The pain was all the same to Danny; if anything _was_ broken, he wouldn't know the difference.

The Vlad behind Danny gripped both of the teen's wrists in his left hand and looped his right arm around the boy's shoulders, pinning Danny's body against his own. The other Plasmius approached for a second strike.

Danny gulped in another breath of precious air and hopped, kicking his feet outward at the same time. He slammed the soles of his feet into the duplicate's chest and watched him stagger backward in an attempt to regain his poise. The Vlad behind was also thrown off-balance as a portion of the resistance from Danny's kick was transferred backward. He did not, however, trip or fall, as Danny had hoped he would.

Vlad widened his stance to steady himself and tightened his grip on Danny's wrists and shoulders. "I don't think so, Daniel. Your only hope for leaving this place alive just flew away, and I'm a little upset with you right now, so if you were hoping I would take it easy on you, too bad."

Danny knew that pain was coming his way. His body knew it, too. But he still couldn't stop himself from snapping back at Vlad, "I wouldn't want it any other way!" He twisted to the right, knowing the attempt was futile but unwilling to give up. "But please," he grunted, "don't keep talking. We have laws against cruel and unusual punishment."

"Cruel and unusual?" Vlad sneered. His voice dropped lower, taking on a sinister quality that Danny could almost _feel_. "Believe me; when I'm finished with you, the phrase will have an entirely new meaning."

Danny swallowed, trying to ignore the fresh wave of terror roiling through his stomach, but he hardly had time to process the emotion before Vlad's duplicate approached and again punched Danny in the gut, sending another wave of agony through his torso. All the teen could do was grunt in pain as the body-strike was closely followed by second and third which were, in turn followed by a blow to the face. The strike snapped Danny's head to the right with enough force to pop several vertebrae in his neck and caused him to black out for a few seconds.

Danny's head dropped to his chest, and then snapped up again as he recovered from his temporary unconsciousness. He resisted the urge to groan in agony, clenched his jaw and glared at the Vlad in front of him. A bruise was already forming on his left cheek bone.

"You call this 'cruel and unusual?'" He asked. "So far all you've done is slapped me around a little. My _sister_ could do that."

Vlad chuckled. "You think this is the extent of my plan for you? I haven't even scratched the surface of what I plan on making you feel."

"'Scratched the surface?' Judging by what I've seen so far, you couldn't scratch your way out of a talc coffin!"

Vlad's eyes narrowed, but he maintained his smug grin. "'A talc coffin,' huh? So you do learn something in school after all. However, insulting me will gain you nothing."

"Wrong." Replied Danny. "Insulting you gives me personal satisfaction. But _you_ obviously haven't 'learned' that for yourself, huh, Fruit Loop?"

Danny knew he had hit a nerve, the one connected to the older half-ghost's patience, when Vlad's duplicate disappeared and the real Plasmius pushed Danny forward, watching as the teen landed heavily on his chest on the floor. Danny rolled over and watched Vlad, waiting for the man to approach and continue beating him, but nothing happened. Plasmius simply stood there, glaring at Danny, fists clenched. For almost a full minute, nothing happened.

And then Danny blinked. His eyes closed on a snarling, angry, lonely man, and opened to Vlad's face hovering a mere inch from his own. Plasmius's expression was no longer tumultuous and uncontrolled, but placid and focused.

Danny gasped in alarm at the sudden closeness and began to scramble backward, but Vlad's hand darted forward and wrapped itself around his throat. With what seemed to be no effort at all, Vlad lifted Danny off of the floor and held him a good foot above the concrete surface. Danny knew was that he was in trouble, but he also knew that by making Vlad so angry, he had increased the man's potential to make a mistake. The only question was: Would Vlad make a mistake before Danny no longer had the strength to act?

The chance was very low, since Vlad's first move after picking up Danny was to squeeze his windpipe until he was nearly unconscious. Just when Danny thought he would suffocate to death, Vlad pulled him close and whispered in his ear.

"Don't worry, Daniel. I'm not going to kill you just yet. My only desire now is to bring you discomfort, not death."

With that, Vlad sent a blast of ectoplasmic energy into Danny's throat and throughout the rest of his body. Danny couldn't even scream; there was no oxygen left in his lungs, not to mention the viselike fingers that sealed his windpipe and prevented him from so much as gasping for air.

When Vlad finally stopped, he dropped Danny on the floor and watched him groan in pain for a moment before he planted a foot on the boy's chest and pinned him down. With a wave of his hand, he used his ghost power to create manacles on Danny's wrists and ankles so that the boy was chained to the floor. His arms were pinned in a 'T' fashion, his wrists immobilized by a subtle ruddy glow, while his feet were fettered together and pinned to the floor. As an afterthought, Vlad summoned additional bands of pink light above Danny's knees to keep his legs further restrained, so that they would not bend, and then placed another restraint over the teen's forehead.

Danny kept fighting, knowing that even if he were yet unrestrained by Vlad's ectoplasmic energy, his strength would still have been very ineffective. A few short seconds of struggling were enough to convince him that he was wasting his energy, and he gave up, albeit temporarily. He would find an opening later. If there was one.

Danny watched Vlad kneel on the floor next to him and wondered what was going to happen next. More punches? More kicks? A few more broken ribs or cracked bones?

Vlad placed his left hand on the boy's chest, and that's when Danny realized that all of those things were preferable compared to what was about to happen. With renewed vigor bred primarily of terror and partially of rage, Danny pulled against Vlad's energy and tried to move _away, _but there was nothing he could do. Vlad's hand phased through Danny's skin, through his sternum and ribcage.

_Danny felt Plasmius's fingers wrap themselves around his heart_.

He watched a grin spread over Vlad's face, and then everything ceased to exist as sheer agony bloomed like a twisted, malignant flower in his chest and vined outward through his nervous system. He couldn't feel anything but pain. He briefly realized that he was screaming, but then he couldn't breathe because there was no longer any air in his lungs. He couldn't move since his body arched upward from the floor and left his muscles locked in an unending mimicry of electrocution.

An so he remained, locked in a silent scream for what seemed ages until Vlad released his hold on Danny's heart and allowed the boy to recover. Danny's body relaxed and slumped to the floor as, within his chest, the perverse blossom died and withered away, leaving behind only the memory of its essence.

Danny wanted to shy away as Vlad leaned in to speak, but the energy band across his forehead prevented him from moving. "Do you want to know the best part?" Vlad asked. "That was five seconds of pure torment. Do you want to know what I can do with a minute? Or even an hour?"

Danny simply stared at the man in shock.

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

And that's chapter 9! I hope it kept your interest! I don't normally like to get to gruesome with torturing the good guy, but this chapter was actually the entire reason behind this fan fiction. I had this idea in my head and it wouldn't leave! Anyway, I don't know when the next chapter will be posted, but hopefully my schedule allows me to upload it soon!

Keep it Surreal!

-Oreochema


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